Ms Danielle Woods

Undergraduate Professional Lead (Adult)
danielle.woods@uhi.ac.uk

Biography

Danni Woods

My clinical background for 19.5 years was working as a senior nurse in a local acute NHS Trust, 14 of those years working in the Accident and Emergency department and 5.5 years as the Trust’s Lead Nurse for Dementia, taking a central role in the output of positive dementia epistemology and how this impacted on the Trust and the larger geographical area. This involved challenging current thinking by reviewing current national and trust policy and guidelines, implementation of education and training programmes. The aim was to develop new and improved policy and working practices that influence high level nursing and multi-disciplinary practice focused on person centred care. The role provided an opportunity to lead, influence and provide consultations within a multi-disciplinary environment and engage in the research process in order to influence care according to best practice.  

In 2018, I joined the University of Bradford’s School of Nursing and Health Care Leadership as a full time Adult Nurse lecturer and Admissions tutor. Over the 3 years at Bradford, I undertook the roles of Admissions Tutor, Module lead for both undergraduate and post graduate, Adult Field Lead, Cohort Lead, Personal Academic Tutor (PAT), Academic Assessor and was part of a project group that evaluated the role of the PAT from an academic and student perspective across the Faculty of Health.

Research

As part of my personnel research development, whilst in post as Dementia Lead Nurse, I worked alongside colleagues from the University of Bradford Dementia Research Centre and was part of the dementia PhD student advisory board, this entailed attending regular panel meetings and seminars organised by the University of Bradford, separate to this I met with individual PhD students to share my knowledge and expertise on areas they were researching. 

I have experience of being utilised as an expert by experience within dementia/delirium care when discussing research grants and proposals.  As part of the development of the research focus in the Faculty of Health Studies I was part of the Dementia research cluster.

Currently, in collaboration with the University of Bradford I am part of a research project titled ‘Pre-registration undergraduate student nurses’ experiences during COVID-19: A pilot study’.

Qualifications

  • Registered General Nurse
  • Masters in Advanced Nursing Practice
  • Advance HE Fellow

Professional bodies

  • Nursing and Midwifery Council
  • Advance HE

Responsibilities

  • Deputy and Module Lead
  • Personal Academic Assessor
  • Academic Assessor

Expertise

Bradford Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust (BTHFT) were a national lead in acute dementia care environments, in 2011 in partnership with the King’s Fund, London; Bradford was the first hospital to undertake a large project transforming one of its acute elderly care wards into a dementia friendly environment. The project was commissioned by the King’s Fund and evaluated by BTHFT research department. On the back of this project the King’s Fund held multiple training sessions on creating dementia friendly environments and the wards were showcased as an example. I and other colleagues were invited to talk at the same training events. Due to the success and confidence, we applied for funding from the Prime Minister’s Challenge on dementia 2020 fund to refurbish two main corridors at St Luke’s Hospital to become dementia friendly, the first project of its kind in a hospital setting. We were the only hospital to have been accredited the full 40 marks and the team was visited by the Head of Profession for NHS England Estates & Facilities, Peter Sellers to inform us of our success. The refurbishment project was evaluated by Loughborough University, this involved us as participants. As lead Nurse for Dementia, I was responsible for making sure the hospital was dementia friendly, we were the first hospital in England to be accredited with ‘Dementia Friendly’ status by the Demetria Action Alliance 2014-15. 

I was invited by Health Education England to participate in developing the three-tier training programme. In January 2017, I provided specialist input in the review of a training and support resource ‘knowing me’ produced by the Life Story Network, published in March 2017 for public use. I have been invited to speak at several conferences on the topic of dementia/delirium, including the National Dementia Conference held in Brighton 2016.

I was provided with many opportunities to meet and work with a variety of specialists in the dementia field. I was a member of the Clinical Networks – Dementia and Older People's Mental Health group for the Northern Region, whose responsibility was to focus on priority service areas to bring about improvement in the quality and equity of care and outcomes of their population, both now and in the future. I took part in the development of training and resource material for raising awareness of delirium within acute hospitals, the resource material was about to be piloted in several district hospitals across Yorkshire and Humber as I left post. I was a member of Bradford City Dementia Strategic Group for 5.5 years. As a group we were responsible for the production and delivery of the Bradford District Dementia Strategy and Joint Needs Assessment 2014; I aligned the Bradford Teaching Hospitals Strategy 2017 to the Bradford District Strategy to create a shared purpose and agenda for promoting health and wellbeing across the district.